Movie to See: Terry Gilliam ,LOST IN LA MANCHA

Terry Gilliam is 64. He has directed a series of hit and misses over his thirty-year career such as Monty Python's Life of Brian, Time Bandits, Brazil, 12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and the recent Brothers Grimm. He has had to fight for almost every film he's made.

BRAZIL a sci-fi cult classic about an Orwellian dystopia future features Robert Di Nero as a rebel plumber. The studio in America hated it. They wanted to change the editing. However, a couple of friends who were LA critics started to show it around clandestinely. At the LA critics awards it received Best Film and Best Director.

BRAZIL is necessary see film of Gilliam's but that's not what I wanted to tell you about. LOST IN LA MANCHA is a movie documenting everything that went wrong leading up to the studio canceling the Johnny Depp project about Don Quixote. The film was a 32 million project three year in production before it collapsed. Gilliam got into a legal nightmare to win the script back. Moreover, he intends to complete the project in the future.

What fascinates me about Gilliam is that he perseveres. He's fought studios on more than one occasion to get his films released the way he made them. In the end, most of his movies have flopped at the box office. A US audience doesn’t really get his movies.

If you haven't watch, any of his movies you should check them out. The closest example I can give of a director like him would be Tim Burton.

A partial list of Gilliam films;

JABBERWOCKY--1977
MONTY PYTHONS LIFE OF BRIAN--1979
TIME BANDITS--1981
BRAZIL---1985
12 MONKEYS--1995
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS--1998
LOST IN LA MANCHA--2002
THE BROTHERS GRIMM--2005

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000416/